Of Metal and Light
by SE46 Mantis
Summary: With Pit away on a much deserved vacation, Palutena needs someone else to challenge the destructive campaign of Viridi and her Forces of Nature and save mankind. Fortunately, the realm of the Master Hand has just the solution; the powerful (and callous) Mechon known as Metal Face.


_Note: The one thing I feel I like about Smash Bros the most is its ability to introduce people to all sorts of games simply by throwing them into a crossover beat-them-up. Subsequently, playing Super Smash Bros led me to explore other franchises like Xenoblade and Kid Icarus, and basically just widen the horizons. Metal Face in particular stuck out to me, being a villain who's both absolutely despicable and yet quite entertaining, as well as having an exceptionally intricate design._

_So here's a wee drabble based on the concept of Palutena going through the Uprising motions with a giant robot in place of the angel. Good for her._

_Contains minor spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles and Kid Icarus Uprising._

_Enjoy._

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><p>Angels are the messengers of the gods, minor divine entities that come from the heavens to spread the words of their deities. Since the dawn of time, gods have utilised these heralds to communicate with mankind, the most devout of species, either to coerce their blessings or to warn them of their errors. Whatever form an angel may take, there is no doubt as to their mission; to serve their gods and act as a bridge between the Earth and all other realms.<p>

Alas, most gods have since rescinded these heralds, content to recline within their realms and leave humanity to their petty devices. Whether in the ocean, the cosmos or the Underworld, such gods are content with merely overseeing their realms, no longer interested in what the world of mortals had to say.

Most gods, I should say. One god still saw the benefit of having an angel, a Goddess of Light who saw fit to bless one above all the others, who saw fit to guide this particular paragon of an ancient tradition through an ever-changing world. Ever her loyal servant and herald, this messenger of light passed her message on to all who would listen with unwavering faith and eternal loyalty.

But even the most acclaimed of the angels, even the most devout of messengers, deserves a break now and then.

Pit meticulously goes through his luggage for the fourth time that hour, making sure he has everything he needs; beach ball, sunscreen, towels, parasol, swimming trucks, more sunscreen and of course, lots and lots of yummy food. Naturally, the food is the most important part. Finally deeming himself satisfied, he closes the case, hefts it up with a bit of effort and skips off out of his room towards the main hall.

Even with the extra weight, it doesn't take him long to reach the hall; angels are quite well-exercised, after all. And standing by her mystical pool, the person he seeks to see right now, awaits the Goddess of Light, Palutena, ruler of Skyworld and noble commander of the angel. She perks up on hearing him enter and smiles widely, stepping away from her pool to come and greet him.

Ever the Captain of the Guard, Pit promptly darts into a bow before her, to which she responds with a laugh: "Pit, you don't have to bow to me when you're heading off to vacation."

"Force of habit, Lady Palutena." He replied cheerfully, springing back to his feet and skipping over to her, bouncing on his heels in his eagerness. "I have to pay my respects to the best goddess whenever I can."

She giggles affectionately: "You're so sweet, Pit. So, are you ready for fun and relaxation?"

"You know it! After beating Hades, saving the world, restoring balance and acing that wicked Tournament, I am ready to R-and-R until I have no R's left!"

"That's the spirit. You wanted to go to Tortimer Island, correct?"

"Seemed like a good place to me during all those matches I had there. Lots of friendly critters, lots of lovely sunshine, the trees have tons of sweet delicious fruit and-"

"And the water is shark-infested."

He pauses at her calm statement, before sighing:

"Oh yeah, there are sharks there, aren't there? Like, crazy big ones, big enough to go for Bowser even!"

"Indeed. So promise me you'll put on your anti-shark spray before you go swimming. I'd really hate to have 'eaten by a shark whilst on vacation' on your resurrection resume."

He perks up, snaps open his case and fiddles inside it for a moment before pulling out said anti-shark spray, contained in a bright pink can complete with a little cartoon of a sad shark upon it: "No worries, Lady Palutena. I came prepared."

She laughs warmly: "Good angel. No shark's gonna think of messing with you now. Shall I send you on your way then, my Captain of the Guard?"

"Sounds good to me!" He hollers excitedly, dancing around her in his enthusiasm, before a thought strikes and he hesitates, then asking: "But, um, are you sure that you don't need me for anything before I go? Like, there hasn't been some kind of Underworld invasion happening while I was packing, right? Not that there would be one, what with Hades down in the dumps, but I mean, if you wanted me to, I'd be more than happy to stay and help you out-"

She silences him with a strong embrace, cuddling him tightly for a moment as he squeaks in surprise, before releasing him and reassuringly stating: "It's fine, Pit. Everything is as it should be. You have nothing, I repeat, nothing to worry about. Enjoy your vacation, my unequalled angel."

Palutena then grants him an affectionate kiss upon his forehead, a gesture that has her Captain of the Guard flushing furiously as he stammers his goodbyes and good wishes to her. She idly summons a door for him and swings it open in a flare of heavenly light, showing an exotic tropical island surrounded by a gleaming blue ocean below.

Pit doesn't need the Power of Flight to reach the island; stunted as they were, his wings could still manage an efficient glide. Grinning widely at the vacation before him, he tells her not to have too much fun while he's gone, a sentiment she returns, before leaping out of the door with wings spreading and spirit soaring. Hot sun, sweet beaches, gorgeous ocean, here he came!

She watches him glide away with a smile, before slowing closing the door behind him, then turning around, staring across the hall for a moment, before sighing dejectedly.

Okay, she had to admit; she'd been lying. There was in fact trouble brewing, a lot of trouble in fact. But, as Pit had mused, it wasn't from the Underworld this time.

Viridi, Goddess of Nature and both ally and enemy of Palutena and Pit, had seen fit to recommence her campaign against humanity, determined to exact vengeance upon them for their careless misuse of the environment. And unfortunately for Palutena, she'd chosen fit to recommence said campaign right as Pit had been packing up for his holiday; even as Palutena thought about this, her forces were moving to destroy one of the larger human cities.

On the bright side, she had no Reset Bombs left until she could build (or would it be grow?) a replacement factory for them. On the downside, she still had a whole legion of monsters ready to attack, and those things were much easier to grow than Reset Bombs.

Pit had offered to stay and help her with anything, but she had sent him on his way even knowing of Viridi's depravity. After all, who was she to impede her precious angel's vacation over something as pointlessly petty as Viridi's stupid grudges? Pit had worked tirelessly for her all these years, had fought alongside and against her in the Master Hand's Tournament and had saved the world from Medusa, Hades, the Chaos Kin, the Aurum, all that lot. He deserved a break, so she would handle this without bothering his downtime.

Still, the fact remained, she needed a warrior to challenge the Goddess of Nature in her stead. Whilst she had the power to challenge this invasion herself, her heavenly energies were far too dangerous to be employed in the field. She could annihilate the plant-based horrors, but she may well end up annihilating the very subjects she sought to protect as well. She needed someone with a capacity for restraint.

Urgh, if only the Master Hand could have blessed her with the restraint he had given her so she could take part in his Tournament before she'd headed home, but alas, his powers weren't quite as stable in a 'pure' realm and thus she had no such loophole to enjoy here.

So Palutena thinks to herself; who would she summon to fight for her? Who could she employ to challenge Viridi?

Dark Pit was her first option, given he had all the skills and competence of the original, before she had to remind herself that, since the Tournament, he'd allied with Viridi herself. She considered contacting him anyway, perhaps try to sway him to her cause, but she doubted that would work. The duplicate possessed a fair amount of Pit's virtues, but not his loyalty to her.

Maybe seduce him, then? Pit's adoring affection of his goddess had to be present, even if twisted, in his clone. After all, during the Tournament, he had always reacted positively to whenever she swung a swinging dance around her staff. A simple logic indeed; where Pit responded to her fondness, Dark Pit responded to her sultriness. But alas, she doubted that would work as well; Dark Pit wouldn't be so foolish as to let a temptress sway his convictions. Not matter how she could wiggle her hips at him, he'd stick by his path, and that path was also Viridi's path.

Never mind.

Magnus? No, a human, even one as strong as he, wouldn't be able to handle a full blown army of nature-born monsters. Plus, he had no protruding appendages for her to empower with flight. And none of the other gods would be interested in helping her; Viridi's obsession with mankind's destruction was entertainment to them, so why would they bother to help her stop it?

So, she'd have to look elsewhere. And elsewhere she will look.

Palutena strides over to her heavenly pool, a vessel of observation, and shifted it from her world to gaze across realms. She paused it upon reaching an odd coalition of dimensional matter, the home of the Master Hand and the realm at which the Tournaments took place. She ought to find someone who could help her here, preferably someone who could fly, given the amount of participants the Master Hand had gathered from all sorts of dimensions.

The first potential employee the pool shows her, Meta Knight, seemed to be a good choice. He was fast, agile, honourable and possessed both a potent blade and a pretty awesome warship. With her powers behind him, Meta Knight could certainly slice through Viridi's army, especially with the Halberd backing him up.

But unfortunately, he was back in Dreamland, helping Kirby out with something or other. Darn. Try again.

How about that nemesis of Samus? Ridley? The dragon was certainly a powerful opponent, a titanic and vicious force of aggressiveness. He could easily roast the Forces of Nature, and that enhanced Meta form of his would definitely tip the scales in his favour.

Mind you, Ridley was a destructive and sadistic creature who had led his Space Pirates on dozens of pillaging endeavours. Palutena couldn't count on him helping her, not when he may just as easily attack the very humans she'd be sending him to protect. Plus, apparently, Master Hand had turned him back into an infant (which, oddly enough, was a cute fluffy thing) to keep him out of trouble until the next Pyrosphere match. Never mind.

Charizard? Tempting, but alas, Charizard didn't quite have the higher intellect to respond efficiently to an assault of this scale, so no. Fox or Falco might be able to help, with their advanced Arwings, but they were handling troubles in their home realm. It seemed wherever she looked, her hopefully employees were busy with something else.

She sighed deeply, well aware that which each moment she contemplated her choices, Viridi's army could be wreaking yet more destruction. She had to pick someone, anyone, and quickly.

But then she pauses, because she has found someone interesting; the Mechon, Metal Face. He was still in the Master Hand's realm, given he no longer had a place in Shulk's world. Metal Face was a lot like Ridley, a sadistic brute who revelled in carnage, and his rivalry with Shulk mirrored that of Ridley and Samus' mutual hatred.

But unlike Ridley, Metal Face didn't exactly have much in the way of agenda; he followed orders so long as those orders let him kill someone (or in the case of the Tournament, merely KO them) and he wasn't concerned with technicalities so long as he got to make a few explosions. He was certainly powerful, with those huge claws and that laser cannon of his, and he was resilient, his armour shrugging off most attacks with ease, and he was surprisingly quick thanks to that advanced Mechon thruster.

Not to mention, Metal Face had once been human (well, Homs, same difference) and humans were predictable in the bait they would chase. In this case, he would chase violence, and where better to find violence than by taking on the Forces of Nature? Granted, he'd lost whatever humanity (or was it homanity?) he may have had since the Master Hand erased his original body and fused his mind with the mechanical shell, but the point still remained.

There was the risk that he could attack the humans, but Palutena made her decision; in the absence of Pit and in light of Viridi's assault, she'd just have to pick her poison. Metal Face it was.

A wave of her hand created a heavenly pillar of light that transcended dimensions, and mustering her divine powers, she brought forth the one who would become her substitute warrior. It was more difficult than bringing Pit to her, given the difference in size between him and the Mechon plus the whole transporting-through-different-realms part, but the Goddess of Light managed it, and thus the robot manifested within her hall.

Metal Face had apparently been in the middle of a match on the Gaur Palin, given he was waving his claws around, hollering: "Hey, hey, time to di…. Time to…. Time to… what?"

The robot paused in his aggressive posture and straightened somewhat, looking around in bewilderment. This wasn't the Gaur Plain; this was some sort of temple, maybe a cathedral, some bright and shiny place reeking of fanciness and bizarre energies. What the hell?

"What is this?" He asked to no-one in particular, staring around in confusion. In all his time, he'd never once experienced something like this, some kind of random teleportation into this weird holy-looking kind of place-

"Hello, Metal Face." Palutena greeted pleasantly, a tad amused at how swiftly the Mechon turned around in his surprise, claws readied for an attack before lowering on noting the apparently harmless woman. "Welcome to Skyworld. Do you remember me?"

Four glowing red eyes stared at her in disbelief, perhaps wondering if he might have lost his mind before he tilted his head and said, recognition slowly coming to him: "You… you're that pretty goddess from the Tournament, aren't you? What was the name? Pally-tenner, something like that? You always hung out with those little angel brats, dancing around with your stick and stuff."

He seems to be taking it well. She supposed she too would be less bothered with random stuff if she'd been made a boss in some tournament hosted by disembodied hands.

"Good guess on the name there. I'm Palutena, Goddess of Light and leader of Skyworld." She enlightened. "This is on short notice, I know, but I have summoned you here for a purpose."

Metal Face glowered slightly at the idea of being called to her like some lackey, stepping forward to loom over her in a clear attempt at intimidation: "No-one summons me, maggot."

Palutena was unimpressed by his brazen aggressiveness, flipping her hair in disregard for it: "Then it pleases me to be the first. But debating summons is beside the point. What I really need is for you to take care of some business for me."

She stepped to the side to show him her divine pool, waving her hand to shift the waters into the image she had been looking at before, an image she'd been looking at when Pit had taken his leave; a human city, overwhelmed by monsters who sought their destruction. "Take it in, Mechon. I'm certain you can see the troubles here."

Metal Face's eyes 'blinked' as he looked into the pool, before he said: "So what? Some place is getting smashed by weird things, big deal. Why should I care?"

"Because I do care. My enemy, the Goddess of Nature Viridi, seeks the extermination of mankind, the local sapient race in this realm and a very similar race to your Homs." Palutena said, narrowing her eyes at his callousness. She'd expected him to be unsympathetic, but it was still frustrating to behold.

Metal Face seemed irked at being compared to a Homs, so she carried on before he could get pedantic with her: "And since my preferred warrior isn't here at the moment, I need you to crush Viridi's army for me."

Now this perked him up a bit: "Crush an army, eh? Well, why didn't you say so to begin with! If there's anyone who's well suited to crushing little slugs under their feet, it'll be me. There's no-one better than me when it comes to carnage!"

He paused, then asked: "Wait, if you're so anxious to stop this nature goddess whatever, why can't you just do it yourself? Not that I oppose to doing the dirty work of crushing people myself, but aren't you supposed to be an all-powerful goddess?"

"It's a sensitive matter. Now look, I know you're not exactly hero material, and I know that helping others is far above your personal priorities, but all I need you to do for me is just go fly around, smash some monsters, save the people and teach Viridi a lesson. Make sense?"

"When you put it like that, it's positively divine, goddess." Metal Face snorted. "But just one quick little question."

He leaned in then, massive frame coming down with his spiked face craning mere inches from hers, and he sneers: "If, hypothetically, I was to refuse your little deal, what exactly would you do about it?"

Palutena is far from intimidated. In fact, her response was to simply smirk and lean forward herself, face right before the right set of twin red eyes, a hand fondly tapping at his prominent chin, before she replies "Well, I do know a lovely little realm that would suit you perfectly. Ever heard of the Minus World?"

"No. What about it?"

"Imagine a world where nothing changes. Where everything is static, primitive, unending. You could run from one end of the world to the other, yet come across nothing but the same things, over and over again. I've heard it said it could drive even the strongest of willpowers mad."

And then her grip on his chin tightens and she pulls the surprised Mechon's face in closer, eyes right up to his own: "And that's exactly where you'll be going if you don't behave yourself and go trounce that compost-loving genocidal little pain in my heavenly behind for me."

Metal Face assesses her expression, noting the sheer seriousness of her threat, tone and expression, before promptly deciding that arguing with a goddess capable of transporting him across dimensions was not in his best interest: "Point taken. When do I start?"

She soon sends him on his way to the departure room, as she liked to call it, twirling her staff a tad to enlarge the corridors for him to move through. Standing by her pool, ready to assist, she idly wonders if recruiting the Mechon may come back to bite her. Well, at least she had someone to combat Viridi with.

A slight snort. Throughout all of time, angels had taken quite a few forms, but she'd doubted anyone had seen an angel appear as a gigantic robot.

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><p>A gigantic golden door swung open before him as he staggered down the pitch-black corridor to the departure room or whatever she called it, a bright light in the darkness that revealed to him a bright blue skyline. He hesitated, looking through the door into the vastness before him, before noting the primitive city he'd seen in that pool below, smoke spewing up from it and bizarre entities swarming the skies around it.<p>

Well then, this was the assault from that nature goddess alright. And apparently, it fell to him to stop it.

Now, he didn't like stopping carnage, particularly carnage directed towards biological little pests; the more Homs (no, wait, humans) that died, the better! The fires, the destruction, the screams, it was a beautiful symphony to him, the light of his life. But alas, this light here was one that he had been called upon to snuff. Dejecting, but a job was a job.

At least the goddess had allowed him to make his own light and unload his full power upon the aggressors, those Forces of Nature or whatever she called them. He didn't care much for technicalities; so long as she gave him maggots to squash, he wouldn't complain.

His thruster flared into life and he floated through the doorway, impressed at how swiftly he'd gone from the quiet corridor to a beautiful skyline filled with bright white clouds, before compacting into his flight form and blasting off towards the imperilled city.

"_Metal Face, can you hear me?" _The deity's voice resounds through his armour, as if it was inside his very mind. His flight path shakes a bit in surprise, before he gets himself back together and grumbles an affirmative. It felt weird speaking to nothing, but apparently it worked given she was carrying on:

"_Excellent; I was a bit worried that my telepathy might not affect a Mechon. Well, I'll bring you up to speed; the Forces of Nature are, as you can see, tearing apart that city down there, trying to wipe out the local population of humans. You need to take out every last one of them, and then we'll find out where the base Viridi is popping them out from is, to nip them in the bud."_

"Brilliant plan, goddess." Metal Face snorts, as he flies around the perimeter of the city, scanning the foes below intently as he plots his move. "So tell me, what exactly does this Viridi have against humans? Not that I could blame her for wanting to flush out a few slugs, but it's nice to know what makes someone tick, heh heh."

"_I'll tell you in a moment." _Palutena responds, clearly distasteful of his callousness (well good, it was something she needed to deal with when working with him). _"But first, we've got enemies coming for you. Let's see if you're as good as Pit in an air battle."_

The Mechon scoffed as he noted the creatures coming up to intercept him, unfolding from his flight mode and bearing his claws, welcoming their pitiful challenge: "Ha! Just you watch, goddess! I'll show you what a real warrior can do!"

His opponents vaguely reminded him of Telethias in their bizarre shapes, albeit far smaller and much weirder. The first wave to engage him look like nuts, big fat acorn things with bulbous eyes and fluttery leaf wings. He was disbelieving that these were the opponents he'd been summoned to destroy, but then, beggars can't be choosers.

Readying his claws, he thrust forward and sliced at them; most of the first batch were split apart with ease, their hard shells breaking like twigs with each blow he dealt them. But just as there was those who were too slow to dodge, there was those who fluttered out of the way, jerky and quick, like some kind of personified malfunction.

Weirdly, the ones he destroyed turned into little floating hearts or something and fluttered into him. His bewilderment turned into understanding when the goddess informed him that the hearts they dropped could be used to power up a cauldron or something. He nodded and agreed with her words sweetly, silently deciding that he didn't care at all. Hearts or no hearts, he really didn't care about magic cauldrons or whatever.

Anyway, he swiped at the surviving nut things, but they were quicker this time, dodging out of the way and returning fire by way of opening their shells and firing barrages of… seeds? Seeds?! What the utter hell?!

Their puny little seedlings weren't even felt as they impacted his armour, and Metal Face sneered: "Weaklings! This is the enemy you saw fit to summon me to fight?! They're a bunch of stupid worthless seedlings! How your angel might ever think these things a challenge, I'll never know."

"_For the same reason you're not exactly felling all of them in one swipe, oh mighty Mechon; Nutskis are fast and agile, attacking in swarms with a multitude of shots. Whilst your armour can withstand their light attacks, don't get caught in a combined assault of their stronger projectiles."_

A fair enough logic, Metal Face conceded; experiences with his old enemies had taught him that numbers (well, and the Monado) could tip the scales rapidly if you-

"_Excuse me, pardon me for interrupting, but exactly who are you calling worthless seedlings?!"_

What the hell?! Metal Face was briefly distracted from his slashing the stupid nut things by another voice inside his voice, some kind of high-pitched whiny childish voice that instantly had his very armour crackling with irritation. Twisting around in mid-air, he scanned for the source of the voice, but found nothing.

"What?! Who dares-"

"_Nice of you to make an appearance, Viridi." _Palutena's much more soothing voice responded, cold and distasteful, leading the robot to realise that the enemy goddess was also employing telepathy. _"I'm beginning to think your own desire for destruction is as great as Hades' was."_

"_Do not compare me to that soul-snagging degenerate! My intentions are far nobler than getting fat on souls! But I'm not here to argue morals with you, Miss holier-than-thou, I'm here to question exactly why this flying hunk of junk sees fit to insult my darling Children! Of all the idiots you could have replaced that dumb angel with, this is the guy you pick? Some oversized metal jerk who loiters in that Gaur Plain and talks trash?"_

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, this is Viridi?!" Metal Face hollered in disbelief, wondering exactly how much more insanely demented this day could get as his cannon blew through half a wave of the nut things. "This is that Goddess of Nature you want me to stop?! She sounds like a damn kid!"

"_Who are you to call me a kid, Metal Face?" _The audio-hurting childish voice sneered. _"I have been around since the first speck of life grew from the primordial soup. I have nurtured all forms of life from tiny ants to gigantic whales throughout their entire evolutionary history! Compared to me, you're just a little baby wiggling useless little limbs!"_

"You dare call me a baby?! With that voice spouting out your impudent mouth?! Let's see who's a baby once I've torn through all your stupid plants and shoved my claws right through that yapping voice box of yours!"

To emphasize his risen frustration with the annoying presence of the enemy deity, he grabbed a fleeing Nutski and crushed it into pulp.

"_Ooh, big man- Oh wait, sorry, not a man anymore, are you? The Master Hand was quite prompt in stripping away the Homs within, leaving nothing but a cold empty shell containing a twisted little mind. Poor little you."_

Metal Face snorted derisively at her meagre attempt to insult him: "I have no objections to his decision, tree hugger. This body suits me better than my old one ever did, and it'll be my great delight to show exactly what I mean when I smash you like I'll smash your puny nuts!"

The voice paused, before snorting critically: "_You know, Palutena, he's a lot less fun than Pit, isn't he? All grumpy and death-threats. Where's the optimism? Where the dorkiness? Where's the toadying?"_

"_I didn't pick him for his skills as a conversationalist, Viridi. I picked him because he stands the best chance of defeating your legion."_

"_Oh puh-lease, Palutena! As if one measly machine could take on the Forces of Nature. I'll have him packed up and headed to the dump before you know it."_

"_You've said similar things about Pit as well, and look how he's beaten your commanders and minions before. I've every bit of confidence that Metal Face will do the same."_

Metal Face wouldn't admit it, but he was just a tad flattered by her faith in him despite her plain dislike of his attitude.

Regardless, as he was about to assist the goddess in insulting this abominable little pest in his head, he wound up distracted when a projectile attack impacting his left arm actually flinched him a little bit with a small explosion. Irritated, he turned to face the attack and found himself confronted by what looked like little flowery things. One of them tipped over, the petals splitting apart and a mouth within spitting bombs at him.

So, these things were apparently tougher than those fluttery nuts, if the fact their attacks hadn't just pinged harmlessly off his armour implied. Still, their frail little forms would be easy enough to slice, especially since they seemed slower than the other ones.

As he went about eradicating them, Viridi spoke up again: _"To answer an earlier question of yours, Mechon, my assault upon humanity is due to one reason and one reason only; because they are upsetting the balance of nature. Humans are greedy selfish little pests who destroy everything around them! This world I crafted for them, all the beauty I have so painstakingly grown over so many millennia, they practically spit upon! The only way to restore peace is to annihilate them, simple as that."_

"Oh, I see your point now; you just don't like how others play with your toys." He taunted, amused at how passionate she was in her genocidal quest. "Well, aren't we just a petty little thing, trying to act as though we're justified in our carnage."

"_More justified than you, you mechanical monstrosity! You kill people purely for fun, you destroy whole colonies purely to spite one guy, and that's just sick! You're like Hades, if he were less flamboyant and content with being a cold rusty machine."_

"_Even if your motivation is, from your perspective, justified, what makes you any better than Metal Face now, Viridi, with your legion slaughtering any human they come across?" _Palutena challenged. _"You and I have conflicted about this before, and my opinion is as it was then; eradicating humanity is not the answer you should seek. Your quest for vengeance will only cause more suffering-"_

"_Oh spare me your stupid more-moral-than-thou talk, Palutena. You're the one who'd happily sit back and let them butcher all the animals and plants so long as they blow you some kisses! You're the one who brought in a psychotic murderer to fight her battle! You-"_

"Personally I think you've both got your heads stuck right up your asses." Metal Face chimed in. "All this yammering about who's better than who, it's pointless! The only way we'll know whose better is by whose left standing when all's said and done! And unfortunately for you, kiddie, since I'm the guy standing against you, that means you're the one who's going to find out exactly how it is to be squashed like a slug!"

With that, he maintained his quest to destroy the enemies feebly attempting to stop him. Each blast of his laser saw more of the Forces of Failure blasted into nothing, each swipe of his claws rendered plant material into nothing but shreds! A squad of the flower things attempted to combine their firepower against him, but his laser blew through their bombs as easily as his claws sliced through their frail bodies.

Ah, if only he could see the look on the nature goddess' face as he easily tore her army a new one. She'd probably be pouting like a spoiled kiddie, if her voice was accurate of her appearance.

"Is this all you've got, little miss Viridi? Is that it?" Metal Face cackled as he watched shredded petals flit away in the wind, floating back down to the Earth below "You just gonna throw flowers at me all day? C'mon, I could get a better fight from those pink puffballs floating around in that Tournament!"

"_Just you wait, Metal Face. You'll see just how much I have to offer soon enough."_

"_Keep at it, Metal Face." _Palutena chimed, and Metal Face latched onto her much more pleasant voice in relief from the other deity's whining. _"Clear the skies, then you can move down to the city to flush the rest out. And I shouldn't need to remind you to avoid causing any more destruction than has already been done."_

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, goddess. I'll keep my claws off your precious little maggots, provided I can have more of that whiny brat's toys to break."

His back mounted laser fired, swiping an incoming wave of the flower bomber things in half. Weak and pathetic; none of them stood a chance against them. Palutena informed him that these ones were called Daphnes. Stupid name for stupid enemies, naturally. With the speed his superior technology granted him, he was easily able to hunt down the remaining Forces of Nature swooping up to challenge him and smash them to bits.

Whether Nutskis, Daphnes or some kind of bony fish thing called a Lurchthorn, he shot and clawed them out of his way with ease. He had to admit, it was quite fun slaughtering his way through some another dimension's sad little plant army, quite fun even. Of course, there wasn't quite the satisfaction of his claws carving apart warm soft flesh, but he'd take what he could get.

Hm, how Palutena and her stupid little angel could ever consider these things a serious threat, he'd never know. This was practically a tutorial for him, a little bit of practice in ripping small fragile targets apart. Of course, given how childish their master sounded, he couldn't be surprised that these things amounted to nothing more than whiny kiddies throwing toys in a tantrum.

Once he was done blasting the last Lurchthorn out of the sky, his laser blazing straight through its head and bringing the whole creature down, Palutena was in his head with her praise:

"_Good job, Metal Face. The sky is looking quite clear now. Head down to the city and take out any Forces of Nature you find down there."_

"As you wish, my goddess." He jeered, thruster powering up and sending him downwards towards the city. Most of the Forces of Nature had congregated here, with the ones in the sky having been either scouts or those sent up to attack him. Spying a relatively clear street big enough to accommodate him, he moved in to land, and an impressive landing it was what with a gigantic robot slamming down hard enough to create a sizable crater.

Flexing his legs and arms, the Mechon strode out of the impact point and made his way down the street, eyes scanning intently for his opponents. Occasionally a squishy little human (whoa, she was right, they really did look like Homs) scuttled by him, screaming about monsters or whatever, but, fun as it would be, he refrained from squashing them. Getting a lecture from the Goddess of Light wasn't in his best interests, particularly when recollecting her threat about that Minus World or whatever.

Besides, he had more interesting opponents right now; some kind of gigantic rock thing decorated with a weird rune and bearing a leaf on its head was making its way towards him, attempting to crush any human it came across. Each step it took shook the street, and its rocky exterior looked fairly tough. However, it was painfully slow, and that would certainly impede it.

"First flowers, now rocks." Metal Face stated dryly, baring his claws in challenge to the newcomer. "Doesn't little miss nature have anything more impressive than scrap from a backyard garden?"

"_Don't get too cocky. These Boom Stompers may not look much, and they're pretty slow, but they can hit hard with all that mass. Try aiming for the tree on top of them; that's a pretty good weak spot. Be careful though; even with that vulnerability, they're still very tough."_

Taking her advice, Metal Face readied his cannon and fired a potent sphere of energy at said tree. The blast immolated it with ease, and then the rock thing, Boom Stomper or whatever, paused in its motions for just a second, almost as if its rocky mind were confused, before comically toppling over and exploding in a shower of hearts.

"_Okay never mind. Wow."_

"Well that was easy. Guess I hit a bit harder than the angel."

"_Apparently."_

"What kind of idiot puts a weak spot like that on top of such a slow target anyway?"

"_Evidently, Viridi."_

"_Oh would you two shut up?" _The Goddess of Nature yammered, the Mechon cringing again at her volume. _"Boom Stompers need an external appendage to perform photosynthesis in order to maintain the gift of life I granted them. That tree was the most efficient way to do that. Besides, they tend to be taller than most people, so it's difficult to get a clear shot at it."_

"Too bad I'm a bit taller than the angel brat you're normally throwing sticks at." He snorted, continuing to make his way down the streets in search of more of her pathetic minions to crush. Another Boom Stomper appeared to challenge him, but he took out its weak spot as easily as he did the first one. "But hey, maybe the next time you throw rocks at me, try and make sure they're rocks without blatantly obvious weak spots, like a _competent_ commander could."

"_You know what, you're starting to get on my nerves, Mechon. Children! Forget the humans for now and converge on this trash-talking robot! Don't let up against him until there's nothing left but junk!"_

"_Be careful, Metal Face, she's not kidding around. The Forces of Nature in the area are all heading your way!"_

"Good, good, let them come! Destroying them all with be so much easier when they're all clustered together, ha ha! Now sit back, goddess, and watch how much better I am than your angel at crushing these fools!"

Oh, they were coming at him fast now; he could see the nuts and the flowers and the bony things all swooping in from wherever they had been before, he could see more Boom Stompers in the distance wandering in, and a host of new enemies as well.

The first of these new enemies were weird ball-like things on wheels, bearing a yellow eye under a protective mask and a lit fuse on top. He didn't need Palutena's warning to know that these things were bombs; though the technology of Mechonis was much more advanced than simple fuses, he could recognise a potential explosion when he saw one.

It seemed they were aiming to target his legs so that they could bring him down to size and make it easier for the rest of the freaks to finish him off. Well, he couldn't have that! The first one that came into range, he lashed a foot out and kicked it into the distance, before swiping away a second one with a wave of his arm. A third one went for his legs, but he merely scooped it up a claw, took aim and tossed it at one of the Boom Stompers in the distance.

A fiery flash when it hit the weak spot and the rock went down, its tree reduced to smoke and ash and its body exploding into hearts.

"_Ooh. Not bad, Metal Face."_

"_I admit, that was pretty cool."_

"I aim to please." The Mechon replied pleasantly, before turning his cannon on the incoming flyers. The Nutskis were quick to dodge, but the slower Daphnes and Lurchthorns were much more vulnerable to the laser that tore a portion of them into bits.

The Nutskis converged and simultaneously unloaded a horde of their larger blasts at him, forcing the Mechon to boost to the side to evade the attack. Catching sight of a Lurchthorn drifting over to follow up the assault, Metal Face leapt up and grabbed the bony monster by the tail, promptly swinging it at the nut things as a makeshift bludgeon.

Each swing took out a bunch of them, the stupid pests not expecting such a manoeuvre, before he finished the rest with another blast of his cannon and then slicing the Lurchthorn in two. The first wave had been dealt with, but he could see more of them coming in. Charging his cannon, he fired blasts at the oncoming horde, reducing a fair chunk of the weaker ones into hearts, but they just kept on coming.

Hmm, irritating. If this kept up, he risked being outrageously swarmed. He needed a way to clear them out, and quickly.

"Goddess, you wouldn't happen to have any edges for a one-on-many fight, would you? I could smash them all to a pulp the old-fashioned way, but I wouldn't object to some divine intervention right about now."

"_As it so happens, I do have a few spare powers to lend you, Metal Face. Tell me, are you familiar with the Smash Run course?"_

"No. What's that?"

"_Eh, nothing important. I'm lending you some powers I borrowed from it now, they ought to work better with you than the normal powers I normally use for Pit. They should manifest as additional weapon protocols in your processor. Use them wisely, though; I only have a limited supply until I can convince the Master Hand to ship me some more."_

"I'm all about being wise." He scoffed, as her statement came true and his processor did indeed download some special little gifts. The first one to catch his eye was something called Power Bomb. Intrigued, he initiated it.

As the Forces of Nature came for him, a single metal capsule sprung from a tiny blue portal in front of the curious Mechon, landing before the horde and almost immediately exploding in an all-consuming sphere of fire that sucked in the first batch and immolated them with ease. Granted, it left the streets darkened with soot, which Palutena would probably whine about later, but at least the incoming attackers had been taken out.

"Whoa." The Mechon had to admit, he was impressed by such destructive power. "Nice bang. Never pegged you as one for fireworks, goddess."

"_I'm a woman of many passions. Still, don't be too reckless with those. The idea is to save the city, not blow it up."_

"Whatever you wish. I'm just glad to try out new toys!" He cackled, before activating the next power he liked the look of, something called Heavenly Light. Upon initiating it, he found himself bathed in a gleaming ray of sunshine that enveloped his bulk completely. He waved his claws through the beams, curious at how the gleaming rays reflected off of them.

"Shiny. What does this do?"

"_Heavenly Light encapsulates you within a shining aura of energy that damages all enemies who come near you. As it so happens, this is a power I made use of myself during the Tournament, so I can lend some strength to keep it up for longer. Get into the fray, Metal Face, and wear them down with it."_

"Consider it done! Come here, maggots, and taste the light!"

Emboldened by the aura of sunlight, he charged at the remaining forces of the other deity's invaders. He went for obvious targets like the bomb things and the Daphes first, slicing them with his massive claws, delighting how whenever some Nutskis tried to get in close to bombard him, the Heavenly Light searing their shells into a fiery mess.

Heck, practically everything he got close to started burning up and writhing in pain. He probably didn't even need to slice them, not when he could just keep close and watch them burn. It was quite soothing, actually, seeing the little freaks bursting into flames around him.

And even better, any bombs or seeds that the flying things spat at him, the Heavenly Light obliterated before they could reach him. How convenient! You know, he could get used to running errands for the goddess if these were the perks he could enjoy.

"_You know, Metal Face." _Viridi jeered at him as he continued to smash through her minions, ever a persistent pest, even more so than the Monado boy and his dumb friends. _"For all your talk of being a hardcore giant robot, you're still just as dependant on Palutena to help you out as Pit is."_

"I'd depend on anyone who'd give me the chance to stomp on your annoying face, maggot."

"_Nice comeback. Did Palutena give you that as well or did you actually think for yourself for once?"_

"The only one who needs to do some thinking here is you! I mean, who's dumb enough to send floating flowers and slow bone things to fight a Face Mechon? I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to rely on such weaklings, and I personally knew Dunban."

"_If you think my Children are nothing but weaklings, you're in for a big surprise, even bigger than that space dragon. Children, fall back for now. He'll have his comeuppance in due time."_

Metal Face merely cackled as he watched the creatures begin to beat a retreat, flying and stomping and wheeling away as fast as they could. His Heavenly Light had given out by now, but it didn't matter; clearly, this battle had been won. By him.

Naturally.

"Ha, look at them run! Run, run, run, as fast as they can! What was that about them not being weaklings, little miss Viridi? Sorry, I can't hear your stupid excuses over the sound of your grunts running away with their leaves between their stalks! Ha ha ha!"

Stomping on his massive legs, Metal Face continued to cackle in triumph, taking pot shots at the retreating Nature beasts with his cannon. Just like that, he had won the day. How easy! How utterly overwhelming! Just as he predicted, the brat's flower collection was no match for him!

"Ha ha, consider your city saved, goddess! Now go on, tell me you love me more than your wimpy angel! I bet he never took down as much of these losers as quickly and impressively as I did! Ha ha!"

"_I hate to be a downer, Metal Face-" _Palutena replied dryly, uncertain if she ought to be amused or irritated. _ "-But the fight's not over yet. I'm sensing a large mass of energy emanating a fair distance away from the city. Evidently, Viridi is less pulling a retreat and more prepping for something substantially more hardcore. Get into the air and check it out."_

"Chances are it's just gonna be more toys for me to break." The Mechon mused, leaping into the air and folding into his flight form, blasting towards the source of the energy mass. It was about two miles away from the liberated city, a wide dusty region bordered by some small mountains. Funny; though he was scanning the area intently, he was detecting no signs of energy that apparently the goddess could.

As he circled around where Palutena had pointed him to, he found it in himself to ask: "So tell me, goddess, where exactly is this energy source I'm supposed to be seeing?"

"_It is there, but something's not right about it." _Palutena murmured. _"Like it's… digging? I don't know…"_

"_For once, Palutena doesn't have all the answers." _Viridi chortled. _"Well, I won't keep you in suspense for long. Come on out, my champion!"_

Metal Face was just about to ask if this champion of hers may be any tougher than all of the pointless little plant things, when the ground began to shake. Granted, he didn't feel it up in the sky, but he could see the environment below shaking violently, rocks and trees shuddering, dust thrown up, even the nearby mountains shaking-

And then came in a crack in the ground, splitting open wider and wider, forming a canyon, getting larger and larger with each passing second, rocks falling into the depths as it widened in some kind of gigantic pit. Suddenly, he was detecting the energy Palutena had mentioned: Off the scales, it was! And then, and this stunned even him into disbelieving shock, something started to come out of the pit.

In all of his time, even on Bionis and Mechonis, even at the Master Hand's Tournament, he had never seen something like this. Because a _mountain_ was rising out of the Earth, the very ground continuing to break apart as a titanic mass of pitch-black rock rose from the depths of the newly formed crater, fiery veins of lava streaking along the hulking rock. And atop this unholy avatar of the Earth gleamed two crimson eyes that locked onto the floating Mechon.

Good thing he was purely mechanical now, otherwise he might have made a wee mess.

Titanic arms gripped the edges of the abyss, cracking the ground as it pulled itself out, lava continuing to drip from the beast as it rose up, almost on par with the Bionis and Mechonis in terms of size. A huge leg emerged then, gripping the ground and further pushing up the titan, followed by another. Each step it took shuddered the land, and its very moment displaced enough air to produce raging winds.

Fully emerged, the mountain beast reared backwards, lowered a crag-like lower jaw and gave an unholy crumbling roar that split the very air around it. Metal Face cringed as his armour vibrated unpleasantly from the sound, eyes taking in the sheer size of his new opponent.

So apparently, he was going to have to fight this thing. Oh joy.

"_Holy me." _Was all Palutena could squeak.

"I might need a bigger cannon for this one." Metal Face admitted. Perhaps this enemy wouldn't be quite so easy to break as the others.

"_Surprise, jerks." _Viridi declared triumphantly. "_Say hello to the new and improved __**Cragalanche**__! He's bigger, faster and stronger too, and there's no weak spots on him whatsoever! Since his last battle, I've been keeping him deep underground, nurturing him into the titan you see before you! So then, what'cha gotta say now, Metal Face? Oh sorry, I can't hear you over about ten million tonnes of hyper-energised mountain about to smash you into scrap iron!"_

"_Ten million tonnes? Overcompensating for something, Viridi?" _Palutena asked, clearly falling back into bickering with the other goddess to cover up her nervousness.

"_You would know a lot about that. How many of those Tournament matches did you win by sticking your chest out again? Oh, and how many more with stretching an admittedly sensual leg? Ooh, and am I forgetting all the ones with a good ol' bending of the behind?"_

"I remember when Monado boy lost to that. Best day of my life."

Palutena was rendered quite sheepish: "_Can we change the subject?"_

"_You started it."_

"_Well Metal Face will finish it. Don't be intimidated by this glorified piece of rubble; he may be big, really big, bigger than Ridley even, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Show that rock why you're the go-to Mechon."_

"_Cragalanche, I want this piece of trash scrapped so hard they'd need a Dyntos-standard atomic scanner just to find his protons!"_

With a titanic rumble that shook the very sky and earth, Cragalanche raises ginormous boulder-like fists and smashed them together a few times, the sound of their clashing resonating for miles. Metal Face merely swiped his claws against each other, sparks emitting from each cross of the blades as he prepared to do battle.

"Well, goddess, let's show you exactly how right you were in choosing me to smash this brat's useless minions." Metal Face sneered. "Catch this, Cragalanche!"

His opening move was to charge his cannon and fire a blast of energy right at the walking mountain's face; it exploded impressively enough in a blast of displaced pebbles and dirt. But alas, the attack had little to no impact whatsoever on his opponent; the sentient mountain blinked disinterestedly, before swinging a gigantic arm at the flying nuisance with horrifying speed.

Metal Face boosted out of the way just in time, but the raw air displacement of so much mass swinging through the air had the Mechon blown backwards by the sudden rush of winds. He managed to catch himself, but Cragalanche was bringing his other arm to bear. Another boost to dodge it, further away this time before the winds could catch him, and he retaliated with a few blasts from his cannon.

As the meagre blasts hit the titan uselessly, Viridi's champion blinked apathetically, before prepping his retaliation. A shuddering of his body, and then he began to protrude lava-infused spikes of rock from himself and started firing them at Metal Face, each one gunning for him like a boiling hot bullet. Thinking fast, Metal Face activated another Heavenly Light, shielding himself with the brilliant ray of sunshine. Palutena's enhancements to it seemed to be doing their job, as it managed to destroy or divert any molten projectiles that could have hit him.

Nevertheless, he was evasive, given the fact that staying still for too long was a terrible idea when facing off against someone a million times bigger than he was. Cragalanche unleashed another storm of rocks, bigger rocks, and he really did need to be more evasive given his Heavenly Light wasn't quite as adept at repelling these larger projectiles.

However, one spike grazes his side, fiery rock searing his metal hips and leaving an aching burn on it. He hissed in pain, managing to avoid the rest of the attack, infuriated at how even that meagre blow had been enough to adequately hurt him.

"_Can't keep this up forever, Metal Face." _Viridi sang smugly, ecstatic in her champion's superiority as she gleefully watched the one-sided battle. _"One way or another, Cragalanche is gonna crag your face!"_

He hated to admit it, even to himself, but the Mechon conceded she had a point. Unless he could tip the scales, this battle was not going to go well for him. Even a grazing blow from the giant who could well knock him out of the air. He'd need to play it smart.

So, flying around the titan, making use of superior speed, Metal Face strikes glancing blows against the brute with his claws, his cannons and the burning sunbeam. But alas, no matter where he hit, where he shot, nothing was working. Even going for the eyes failed to yield him any results; his foe was just too well armoured.

Cragalanche opened his mouth and unleashed a stream of super-heated fire; though Metal Face dodged the blast itself, the sheer heat had his armour hissing uncomfortably. Viridi's words rang truer now; if this kept up, he'd weaken to the point of helplessness, and then he'd be smashed into pulp.

And that would suck.

He wasn't going to get anywhere at this rate. Cragalanche's raw size and durability rendered his attacks worthless, and it seemed there were no weak spots to exploit. How could he defeat it?

"_I could try dropping one of my patented Super Goddess Clobber Lasers on him." _Palutena offered, somewhat uncertain. "_But I don't know if it'll be enough to even slow him down. Maybe it might weaken him-"_

"Don't bother, goddess. I'll think of something." Metal Face grunted. The idea of a super laser being dumped on the brute sounded good, but there was no point wasting such energy just yet, not when he might have a chance to find the solution himself. All he needed was just one little flaw, any kind of flaw, and this fight would be his.

Scanning intently, he flew around the titan, avoiding any and all attacks swung at him before noting something, something quite amazing; apparently, his multitude of grazing attacks had weakened the brute's right eye ever so slightly. It was just a tiny teeny little crack near the side, barely detectable even to his advanced scanners, but it was enough to give him hope.

Delighted, he promptly and swiftly formulated a plan, before he shifted into flight mode and pushed some distance between himself and his giant opponent.

"_Ooh, look who's retreating now! Gonna go run crying back to Palutena, robot? Or the Master Hand?" _Viridi chortled. _"Poor little Metal Face, not as tough as he thought he was! Maybe get someone who's less of a pansy next time, oh Goddess of Light!"_

Deciding to show her exactly what he was doing with actions instead of words, Metal Face turned around once he reached an appropriate distance and, with a mighty flare of energy, flew himself as fast as he could towards the titan's gleaming right eye. He had one chance of making this work, and if anyone could make it work, it would be him.

After all, he was better than anyone.

"_Metal Face, what are you doing?!" _Palutena squealed in shock, stunned by his apparent suicidal strategy.

"Ain't it obvious, goddess? I'm showing you why I'm the best there is!"

As he got closer and closer to the target, he tapped all the Power Bombs he had right now and unleashed them simultaneously. Tiny portals fired them forwards the living mountain, straight at its eye, straight at the tiny crack, and upon contact they all burst outwards in spheres of fiery power, merging together in a single immolating wave. Cragalanche gave a discontented rumble as his more sensitive region went up in flames, otherwise unfazed from the explosion

But the Mechon didn't need the attack to truly hurt him, nor was he finished with his plan yet; his cannon charging up to full power, he unleashed a bright beam of energy that blasted through the wake of the Power Bombs, right into the weak spot they'd just been burning.

Another fantastic explosion, and through the dust, Metal Face could detect that his plan had worked; the plethora of explosives and his energy beam, all concentrated on the meagre crack, had split open a hole in Cragalanche's eye. A hole big enough for a giant robot to smash through, he might add.

"_Oh wow." _Palutena breathed. _"A breach! You actually made a breach!"_

"_What the actual Underworld?!" _Viridi yelped, she too realising exactly what Metal Face had done. _"How did you-"_

"Easily, brat; because I'm the best!"

Boosting himself to full speed, Metal Face charged the mountain's injured eye, bracing himself as he got closer and closer, and then-

A burst of broken rock, and Metal Face unfolded and caught the rocky floor just before he could hit the wall before him, claws scraping against the ground as he forced himself to a halt before he crashed. Behind Cragalanche's eye was a spacious cavern, crimson veins of hardened lava extending from the ruby-like rear of the damaged eye into the black rock of his innards.

In short, he'd reached the one spot the brute couldn't reach him. And the one spot where he being his retaliation.

"_Oh my me!" _Palutena was positively squealing in excitement. _"I can't believe you pulled that off! That was insane!"_

"Like I said before, I aim to please, goddess. So, where do you think a soft spot is in all this rock?"

"_Well, um, lemme check… oh, follow the optic veins. They should lead to a brain of some sort."_

"Good plan." He replied, setting off to do just that. The cavern behind the titan's eyes had tunnels extending from it, those optic veins transporting vital energy throughout it. All he had to do was follow the strongest concentration of them and he should be gold.

"_You, you, you have some nerve, Metal Face!" _Viridi shouted furiously, utterly enraged by his defiling her ultimate champion, shocked by his ingenuity in penetrating the impenetrable. _"I can't believe you actually had the sheer gall to smash right through my precious Cragalanche's eye! You absolute piece of trash! Well, well, don't revel in any hope of victory, you punk! Maybe he can't reach you, but he can definitely reach the scum! Cragalanche, forget the Mechon! Destroy our true enemy!"_

His environment began to shake potently, the sound of titanic footsteps resounding throughout the body, and the Mechon realised the cutting-of-the-knot just as Palutena informed him of it:

"_Oh no! He's going to head for the city! Metal Face, you have to take him out quickly!"_

"I'm on it, goddess. Your precious maggots will have life to spare once I cleave this mountain!" Metal Face snarled, before lurching off in pursuit of vulnerabilities. Following the tunnel, he ran as fast as he could in pursuit of whatever weak spots he could find; the optic veins had to lead to something, a brain or a core, and destroying that ought to put the brute down.

His scanners were already detecting the power in here, the raw energy flowing through the beast, but then he found an even stronger source nearby, something exuding with one of the mightiest power sources he'd ever seen. He was already deducing it to be the brain of the giant just as the goddess worriedly stated: _"Cragalanche is nearly there, Metal Face. How close are you to stopping him?"_

"My scanners are picking up something interesting up ahead, goddess. But don't you worry about your pets; if I can't reach the core just yet, I can at least give the brat's mindless minion something else to think about." Metal Face snapped, before charging up his cannon and blasting away at spare veins, exploding them in showers of molten fluids. He could feel the cavern shaking around him with each one he broke, hear distant rumbles of irritation.

"_He's flinching, pausing! __It's working, Metal Face! The pain is distracting him! Keep it up while you hunt for his brain!"_

"_Ooh, you infuriating pests! Leave him alone! It took ages to grow in all those magma veins! Have you no appreciation for someone else's hard work?"_

Metal Face was better off ignoring the pest, he figured. The trail of veins, at least the one he followed whilst damaging the rest, was taking him down another tunnel lit up only by their fiery crimson, towards some kind of white rock bearing a glowing rune on it. The supremely powerful energy source he'd scanned was definitely coming from behind it. Right then, guess he'd found it already.

"_I'm detecting impressive energy behind that blockade. This must be where his brain is." _Palutena mused.

Well, he already knew that of course, but nice to have additional confirmation.

"Then consider him brain dead." Metal Face growled as he went for the wall, claws gleaming as he jammed them into the rock, somewhat softer than the obsidian-like material that made up the rest of the titan, and begin to rip it down in bursts of dust. Again, the titan rumbled, pained by his actions, and he revelled in it. It always felt good to make someone else hurt.

And lo and behold, his efforts bore fruit. Behind the barrier shone a glimmering sphere of green energy. It was surprisingly small, for powering such a humongous rock, but the power he could detect coming off from it was off the scale. Oh yes, this was where he needed to hit alright.

Triumph flowed through him as he took in the sight of his imminent victory. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him now.

"_There's his core, Metal Face! Finish it!"_

"_Don't you even dare, you damnable robot! I'll, I'll turn your remains into a recycling bin for compost, I'll-_

"No weak spots, eh Viridi?" Metal Face cackled, silencing the horrified goddess as he got down onto all fours and aiming his cannon straight at the core of Cragalanche, "Yeah right. Have some of _this, _pebble!"

Charging up all the energy he could muster, Metal Face dug his claws and feet into the rock to brace himself, readied his strongest blast yet and fired.

The laser blast was intense, strong enough to push him backwards even with his braced position, but it shot straight and true, piercing the core of Viridi's supposed champion. The damage lead it to begin fluctuating wildly, energy spilling out everywhere from it, before finally exploding in a blazing wave of disrupted and fiery power that washed hotly over his armour. Metal Face raised an arm to block the heat from his face, before gleefully taking in the sight of the core's final destruction when it had passed.

The core was gone, destroyed and reduce to nothing, and with it, any hopes of the Nature Goddess' decisive victory. Metal Face had won.

"_Noooooooo!" _Viridi wailed_. "Cragalanche! Impossible!"_

The innards of Cragalanche rumbled heavily, a distant roar of agony sending music through his ears, before the area around him began to shake violently in the brute's death throes. Satisfaction flooded through the Mechon, filling him with glee over his effortless defeating of arguably the most deadly opponent he'd ever faced.

"Oh ho, he's really feeling that." He quipped proudly, taking great delight in the silly little deity's anguish. "I guess you can get blood from a stone!"

"_No! No, no no, no!" _Viridi howled, and he could just picture her outraged face in gleeful amusement. _"How dare you! That's not fair! You monster! You can't beat him! My precious warrior! You absolutely titanic piece of-"_

"_Get out of there, Metal Face! He's collapsing!" _Palutena's yelp shook the Mechon from his triumph as the true exent of Cragalanche's defeat revealed itself; his structure began to break down around the robot, the loss of his core resulting in his massive structure deteriorating, rocks dropping from both the ground and the floor as the optics veins split open into waves of boiling magma.

Oh right, he probably should have anticipated this, this whole destroying-one-thing means destroying-everything bit.

"Right, good idea." The Mechon stated, turning to prep a retreat. He'd always been one to know when the time came to flee.

His thruster activated and he made to fly back down the tunnels, to the hole he had made in the right eye, but the ceiling was collapsing faster than he could fly to his exit. Try as he might, there was just too much rubble to dodge, rocks falling ever faster before him and even as he tried to avoid them, he could see that he was about to end up right under a breakage.

"Oh damn-" Was all he managed before a chunk of the ceiling smashed down upon him, sending him crashing to the floor as the titan continued to break down all around him. He attempted to get back up, but it was no use, for the innards of Cragalanche continued to break all around him, sending him tumbling into the collapsing rubble, enveloped in rock and magma.

He was falling, falling, and then-

As the mountainous beast crumbled into dust mere metres away from the city, his spirit retreating back to Viridi's domain with his body destroyed, Palutena scanned the wreckage intently for any sign of Metal Face. Whilst she may not have liked him too much, given his callousness and ego, she certainly wouldn't have wished death upon him, no matter what he was. He had fought for her, after all, and thus she did her best to try and find him.

Her scans were yielding no results, however. Metal Face's signature had vanished amidst Cragalanche's destruction, and she lacked the intimacy with him that she had with Pit to use other methods of tracing him. There was not even a hint of steel within the collapsing mess. Was the rubble blocking off any trace of him? Or was he really dead, destroyed in the carnage? If he was, could she even resurrect him? Would it work on a Mechon?

She wasn't even sure if calling in the Master Hand would help if he had died; the hand's powers were not as stable in a 'pure' realm, after all. Was this it, then? Had Metal Face perished? Again and again she scanned, but again and again it failed.

"_Well, even if Cragalanche was defeated, at least he took that robot down with him." _Viridi huffed, tone highly bitter in her precious champion having lost before he could destroy the humans. _"Guess you'll need a new toady, Palutena, or maybe get Pit off his lazy backside. Whatever."_

Palutena didn't even have it in her to retort, sensing Viridi's presence depart. She may have had no love for Metal Face, but he had fought to the end in fulfilling her objectives, had fought to defend the very organics he despised with nigh zero hesitation. It felt quite unnerving at the idea of him having possibly perished after she had brought him into her conflict; had she only led him to his death?

It had been rather selfish of her, to summon him here to fight for her without any kind of forewarning and not even consider such a consequence such as this, but she had needed his help to hold back Viridi. Was that justification, then? Still, surely she could have-

Wait… wait… was that-

Suddenly, a blue flash of light, and from the crumbling form of her enemy's fallen warrior bursts the Mechon, alive and well, hollering in triumph as he flew into the sky with speeds unrivalled by all but the most powerful of gods and godly weapons. He soared up into the clouds before unfolding and flaring his limbs outwards in a display of true triumph as he roared:

"And **boom** goes the brat's hopes and dreams! Her very mountain reduced to rubble, her very army turned to ash! I'm better than all of them! I'm the best! The best! Who's the Mechon of the hour?! Ha ha ha! Metal Face triumphs!"

He fired blasts of energy around him in celebration, spinning around and around whilst waving his claws, decreeing: "Bigger they are, harder they fall indeed! Right through the eye, straight through the core, I brought him down! He had no chance, no chance at all! There's your victory, goddess, right in his defeated dust! Aren't I the best you've ever had?!"

"_You know, I'm glad you're alright too." _Palutena said sardonically, hiding relief under her disregarding his ego. Despicable as he may be, he had saved the humans, he had defeated the enhanced Cragalanche and had survived to tell the tale. She definitely owed him for what he had done today.

"Of course you are. Your sweet little heart would be broken if anything happened to me." He chortled, hovering above the city now as he flaunted around and basked in his triumph.

"_I'm glad that didn't come to pass then… oh. Hey Metal Face, do you hear that?"_

Pausing in his gloating, he could indeed hear something; he heard cheers rising up from the city he had saved, the grateful humans raising their voices in favour of the Goddess of Light and her metal champion. The titan of rock and lava that had been inches away from annihilating them had been defeated, and once more their lives had been saved by the gracious and noble Palutena, as well as the flying warrior of steel who had fought for her.

He may not think much of Homs- no wait, humans, but heck, it was nice that they knew to give their admiration to his superiority. Humouring them, he shifted into flight mode and conducted a victory lap around the city that owed its meagre existence to him, relishing in their admiration, before taking off into the clouds.

"_I imagine that's the first time anyone's cheered for you." _Palutena mused. _"I recollect Shulk telling me about who you were before you became a Mechon."_

"Well, I always did want to be the hero, to have all of Bionis appreciating me. I suppose I can make do with this."

"_Aw, maybe there's hope for you after all."_

Urgh, he hated sappy sentiments. Preferring to avoid that whole subject, he changed it to more appropriate matters.

"Well, I admit this was all actually pretty fun." Metal Face said brightly as he cruised through the clouds. "Smashing a weird plant army, crushing a mountain monster, hearing the inferiors praise me, it made for quite an adventure. Seems coming along to help you out proved to be a good choice indeed. Got any other chores for me?"

"_Well, I was thinking that you could do with a quick break first; I imagine getting caught in a crumbling mountain has worn you out a bit. But once you're rested up, I'll let you know exactly how we can __**really**__ infuriate Viridi."_

"Making the brat rage even harder, eh? Now that is music to my ears!" Metal Face hollered, before finding himself enveloped in sunlight and returned to Palutena's temple, leaving the ruination of his mountainous foe behind him and the promise of future glory before him.

The humans, meanwhile, would certainly have a story to tell throughout the ages, the day their beloved Goddess of Light summoned an angel of metal and energy to destroy the mountain that walked.


End file.
